ThinkWrite Challenge LXXVI

Question

Hello everyone!

Before we tell you about this challenge, we'd like you to know a bit about us. We are a Grade Three class in a Nursery to Grade Six school in Canada. We are all seven or eight years old and we are the ones who are making responses and challenges, but our Teacher (Miss D.) is helping us with the typing.

(NOTE from Miss D. - If there is anything that comes from me rather than from my students, I will make that clear, as I have done with this note.)

We have been very excited about being part of Think Write and we would like to thank Spots for inviting us to set this challenge. We hope you all have fun with it.

In class, we have been thinking about how people can effect the environment, so we decided to add that as a theme for your stories for this challenge. It can be in a good way or a bad way, but it has to be about how people change the environment.

We couldn't quite get down to only ten words, so there are eleven words for this challenge. They are:

graffiti
garbage
recycle
squirrel
disposal
wasteland
reduce
eleven
turtle
protect
extinct

Your story has to be between 350 and 700 words. We will give you until October 28 to enter your stories.

(NOTE from Miss D. - my students came up with the words and they will be the ones who decide which answer is best. So remember your audience while you are writing - your story will be for children, not adults. My students are very good readers, so you don't need to worry about readability, but if you want them to enjoy your story, make sure the concepts you use are ones that would be meaningful to children. Have fun!)

Comments

If I could only find the time to sit down and write!!  :/  Maybe tomorrow...

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Thank you to everyone who entered our challenge. We will check back on Monday to see if anyone else has entered. We will make our decision when we're back at school on Monday morning.

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This a awesome blog.

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This is a awesome blog.

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I like the callenge Miss.D =)

Answer 1

 

Can graffiti protect the environment?

It was when they decided graffiti was no longer a bad word that everythig changed. The local authorities actually encouraged people to express themselves through street art. At first everyone flocked to the walls that were now at their disposal, but pretty soon it just stopped being interesting. It was no longer exciting because now it was allowed. That's when the positive and encouraging messages started prevailing. The only ones that would take the time to share their art were the ones that actually cared what happened to the city. And boy did the message go through!

At first they drew wastelands and extinct species to shock the public and the message was: recycle.Astoundingly, the amount of garbage on the streets was reduced by half within months. When asked if they'd seen this coming, the mayor's office PR delegate lied and said it was the plan all along. In truth, they only wanted to bring a little colour to the grey blocks that filled the town and they thought this would save the city some money. But nobody, not even the artists, expected such incredible results.

Next they also drew flowers and sunshine, turtles and squirrels and showed the world how great it could be. And then the incredible happened – people went out into parks and started planting flowers and trees. They lined pavements and walkways with potted shrubs and outlined the walls with ivy and rambling roses. Overall, the atmosphere in the city changed. People were happy. Children were laughing. There was even less crime. Everything just... improved. Two thousand eleven would be forever remembered in Trenton as the year of enlightenment.

And to think it was all so easy. Makes you wonder why we didn't do something about it a long time ago. I guess nobody ever told us what we needed to hear. The truth they were keeping from you for so long – You can make a difference.

Comments

Under the word limit, but I didn't want to force the length. Once again, thank you WoN for the inspiration.

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I like this a lot! What a different idea, that graffiti can help us get better. And I liked the flow of it too.
I did notice one typo. "publick" in the 2nd paragraph; I'm not sure if that's an alternate spelling somewhere or just a mistake.

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Fixed. Thanks!

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Thank you for entering our challenge. We enjoyed your story. Here are some of our comments.

I liked the part where you said "Next they also drew flowers and sunshine...". A.S.

We haven't used these words yet in our stories. J.S.

I liked that you told our class (the kids who didn't know) that graffiti can help make beauty. A.P.

We have paintings on walls in our city. Q.B.

We have lots of pictures in our classroom. They are so beautiful. Sometimes we make arts and crafts and books. S.T.

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Thank you for your comments guys (and gals). This story was about making a change and thinking of things differently, seeing the good in things and seeing the opportunity in each of us to make a difference. I'm glad that you noticed that and I'm glad that you are doing what you can to make your environment more enjoyable.

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Congratulations, Spots! You won our challenge! We chose your story as best because it tells us that graffiti can be helpful if you have permission and if you put art and beautiful stuff on the walls. We think this is a hopeful story. It makes us feel happy. Thank you for writing this story. We think you did a very good job with your writing for our challenge. :-)

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Thanks a lot!

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well done Spots :) I really liked the originality of your idea too.

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wow miss ds class is very nice  i wish i was in her class

Answer 2

The graffiti is getting worse. Every inch of bare wall or concrete is covered in it. Garbage has piled up so high; the only way to get anywhere now is to walk, all the while climbing mounds of garbage. Cars ceased being useful a long time ago, when the roads started overflowing. Worldwide interest in “The Three R’s” started too late. By then the world was too far gone to save with only three words - reduce, reuse, recycle.

My best friend is a squirrel. I know, I know, I should really get out more. But where would I go? The gangs that I would join are all crazy. I’m a loner anyway. My buddy Joe is all I need. I mean, a girl would be nice. But really, I’m fine just sharing the scraps I get with Joe. I usually leave him at home base when I go searching for food; he stays just like he’s supposed to. He doesn’t contribute much, but he can squeeze into unused pipes to collect some scraps from people’s old garbage disposals. That sometimes gives us the little bit extra we need to keep going.

Me, I just walk around searching for anything. I feel like the last man on earth, even though I know there are a lot of gangs out there - gangs that would kill me just to eliminate some food competition. They don’t care how much I eat - which isn’t much - as long as it means more for them. We are all in this for ourselves. Even though it’s us that turned the world into the desolate wasteland it is now with our fossil fuels and oil drilling and overeating and wars, we’re still milking the Earth for all it’s got. What else would you expect us to do?

There are only eleven gangs left in the city. I can tell because the colours of graffiti differ from gang to gang. Turtle uses green paint; Sky uses blue - I know they're stupid names. I don’t know why they can’t come up with anything better. Anyways, there are only eleven different colours now. That’s how I can tell how much competition I’ve got.

I can’t really blame the gangs for the graffiti and the gang-wars. They’re just trying to protect their own. It’s fight or die. Or hide, that’s what I do mostly. It’s the only way we can keep from becoming extinct.

Comments

Here you are guys! This was a really tough word list. It's good to have a challenge once in a while. ;) Let me know if there's anything that needs clarifying, I'm not sure how meaningful it will be to you all so I can adjust it if it's necessary. =)

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Note from Miss D. - Thank you for entering, WoN! I'm sure my students will be thrilled! Sorry we haven't been around this week. We had a very busy start, then I was away for a bit with a hurt back (I'm much better now) so we haven't been able to get to the site. Tomorrow is a day off for my students, but we'll be back on Monday with some comments for you. :-)

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Sounds good, thank you for letting me know! I look forward to hearing from the class. =)

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I like it! I was thinking how to do this challenge without making it sound like a lecture and I think you did a great job of that. I also like the imagery you've painted in your story. I could totally imagine the world they were living in. In just those few paragraphs I feel like I know the character. Good job!

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Thank you for entering our challenge. Good job, we liked your story. Here are some of our comments:

We learned a lot from your story, like not to litter and put graffiti all over and don't wreck the environment. K.N.


I don't think I could have used all those words in a story. A.P.

We think that clans are like gangs. Could you change the word to gang, please? F.L.

It was funny that a squirrel was his best friend. E.P.

I don't understand why they had to be enemies instead of being nice to each other. W.H.

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Hi guys! Thanks for the comments and input! I'm glad you liked my story. You guys picked really hard words to use, I had some trouble doing it!
That's a good idea to change the word from clan to gang. I also think of the clans as gangs; I had recently read a book that used the word clan, which is why I used that word too. I will change the word if that would be better for you.
The gangs are selfish, which is why they are enemies. They want all the food and resources for themselves, instead of sharing with each other. It's not right but sometimes people make bad decisions and then become enemies. Maybe someday this will change and people won't have to be enemies anymore. That might be a good idea for a story too. In fact, Spots story kind of talks about that - people working together to make things better.

Answer 3

You know those moments when you stop and look at the world around you? The park, the beach, the city… wherever.  I used to think it was all so beautiful – even when things started to go wrong I didn’t really think it mattered.  Especially not to me: what was ever going to happen in my little leafy suburb?

     I guess it all started with the garbage disposal.  Before we knew where we were, there was enough wasteland in the world to take over two continents.  Maybe it was because it was so big – the whole world – that we never really understood how any of it was our fault.

     My family loved to recycle: my sister and I would use old tin cans to build forts with empty cardboard boxes; broken chairs became spears to hunt the fearsome SquirrelBeast that lived in the terrifying fortress of Oakwood; cleaned out plastic tubs were battle drums and our flag was a colourful combination of supermarket bags.  Encouraged by the government, we all did our best to reduce the waste that was rapidly taking over our planet.

     Graffiti started to appear on the sidewalk as news kept reaching our quiet little town about melting ice and bizarre weather: snow in May, heat waves in October, no-one had an explanation that we could understand.  My favourite bit was just outside our school where a boy in our class had painted a huge turtle with the world on its back, swimming through space, then written the slogan: “Nature has always supported us, now it’s our turn to support Nature.”

     For a while, it looked like the big plan to protect the environment was finally working.  Personally, I think it was the incinerators that ruined it – tall, grey, pointed buildings that blew smoke straight through our streets as the waste filling the land was burnt to a crisp, piece by piece.  My sister and I stayed safe in our fort and played as if nothing bad was happening.

Eleven small houses in our cul-de-sac… nothing was ever going to happen to us.

We were safe.

Until the human race made themselves extinct.

Comments

Here you go guys! Sorry it's taken me a while to post this but Spots and WON prompted me into action :) Thanks for the challenge though, it was a wonderful idea.  Let me know if there's anything that doesn't make sense :)

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Haha, looks like WoN started an avalanche.
Nice story. I thought it ended a bit abruptly, but maybe that just made more of a point.

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Very nice! I liked how you played with the fact that no one every thinks it will happen to them. I like how it ended too, I thought that last sentence was quite jarring and powerful.

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Thank you for entering our challenge. We think your story is awesome. Here are some of our comments.

I liked the ending part when you made a point about people not caring about the earth, because if people read it maybe it will change how they're acting. M.L.

I liked the part when you said that the boy painted the turtle with the Earth on his back in space and the last part when the human race was extinct. S.T.

If nobody would do anything (like not care) then what would the world be like? I think that's what your story was about. T.D.

I liked your story because there was a turtle that has the Earth on its back. Q.B.

I liked the part where you said "the fearsome SquirrelBeast" because I like the word. In my mind it looks like he has red eyes and a little black cape and a little slingshot that shoots acorns. W.H.

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Thanks for all your comments guys! And I'm sorry I only just read them :p that's an awesome idea about the SquirrelBeast, maybe you could try and write him his own story? :)

Answer 4

"Recycle?" Stench chuckled. "Im more into doing graffiti. Right boys?"

"Yeah," Yelled the crowd of boys now at Stench's desk.

"People I dont think you understood the-" Miss.P tried to say.

The boys were not listening.

"If you may let me, Miss. P, Maybe I should talk to the class about our enviroment? I am doing lots of research on it. Its very important to protect it, Right Miss. P?" I said, Grinning wildly.
 

Miss. P nodded and unsurely backed up so I could take the floor.

"Thankyou," I said then smiled to the class. "Okay, So we all see squirrels every day right?" I spoke fluently as the people of the class nodded, except Stench's gang. "Well do you know someday they might be extinct? Its true with turtles too. In the future, Our enviroment might be a wasteland. Literally. Do you know how you can help with the enviroment? You can reduce to normally using twenty water bottles a week to eleven. Or recycle the items that can be recycled in your garbage. Or dispose disposable items. There are many ways. So now do you get the idea classmates? That is our project,"

No one clapped. They were too stunned to clap. They didnt know anything about the enviroment and now they thought they knew a whole history book of it.

"Are you ready for you project?" exclaimed Miss.P.

You could infer what the answer was.

Comments

Very good! I like this take on the subject. Having a student explain the idea in your story was imaginative. Although I noticed a few point of view problems (calling the student I and then She in the same sentence), it still flowed very well and when those errors are corrected I think it will be even better!

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Love it!